Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 27 Burning the Foreign Buddhist Amulets, Merit +1! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

After burning the Buddhist amulet, Zhou Yi inspected the Xu family's entire household to make sure there were no lingering evil spirits before packing up his belongings and preparing to leave.

Xu Wenhai and his wife were extremely grateful to Zhou Yi and gave him another 10,000 yuan as a token of their thanks.

Back in the car, Zhou Yi counted the money he had earned that day. Including the opening ceremony and the exorcism, he had earned more than 40,000 yuan in total... No wonder everyone is desperately trying to get into the metaphysical field; it's a fast way to make money.

Seeing so much money, Granny Gongsun's eyes lit up:

"Master, how many popsicles can this buy?"

Zhou Yi calculated and said:
"All you do is eat. This could buy us a minivan... Come on, I'll take you to the bookstore and pick out some engineering books. Let's skip the literature, especially modern poetry and prose; they're not very meaningful."

Wu Zetian turned her head curiously to the side:
Are there no poets in this era?

"Yes, but it's all poop and pee."

After leaving Xu Wenhai's residential area, Zhou Yi drove to Xinhua Bookstore and explained some things about the literary world to the group, such as how the daughter of a certain writer chairman wrote poetry that focused on vulgarity and was even appointed as a professor in the Academy of Literature.

However, what Wu Zetian found most unacceptable was the poetry competition in modern society:

"Aren't poetry competitions supposed to be about improvising topics and writing poems on the spot? How did it turn into a poetry recitation competition? If Tang Dynasty poets were to participate in this kind of competition, they would die of shame and indignation."

After she said that, Zhou Yi really wanted to see how Li He, Wang Bo, and others would perform at the poetry competition.

Upon entering the bookstore, the group began selecting books.

Chen Tang chose books on forging knives, as well as books closely related to military affairs, such as "The History of Armor Development." However, these were all in simplified Chinese characters, so he would have to learn them before he could understand them.

Wu Zetian chose topics related to people's livelihood, such as industrial and medical infrastructure.

Grandma Gongsun didn't like reading, so she went to the cultural and creative area and picked out two sets of rather complicated Chinese-style building blocks, intending to take them there to pass the time.

After making all their selections, the four Taoist priests drove off to buy some medical supplies before returning to Hunyuan Palace on Yunwu Mountain.

Once they reached the mountain, while the others were unloading the cart, Zhou Yi returned to his room, opened his black notebook, and saw that his merit points had increased by one coin, along with a special note:
[Burning foreign religious artifacts grants +1 merit]

Foreign ritual implements... what about evil spirits? Shouldn't exorcising evil spirits also bring merit?
Zhou Yi flipped to Chen Tang's page and found that this guy's merits had also increased.

The price has increased from the original [2.35 jin] to [2.36 jin], and a special note has appeared at the bottom:
[Expel evil spirits from foreign lands, merit +1]

I never expected to not only make money today, but also accumulate merit. It's so great!
Just as Zhou Yi was about to close the notebook, he suddenly noticed a special notification at the very bottom of his page:
Once you accumulate one pound of merit, you can unlock the Taoist skill exchange function.

One... jin?

This number may not seem like much, but Zhou Yi only has five coins in his hand... It seems he needs to change history as much as possible and go down the mountain to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path.

I came home intending to inherit the Taoist temple and become a reclusive hermit, but I never expected that the black notebook would make me more stressed than when I was at work... Who can I complain to?

Zhou Yi sighed and glanced at the pages of the two fairies from Hunyuan Palace.

Wu Zetian hasn't changed much; she's still the same. But Gongsun Da Niang has surprisingly gained a cheering section:
[Applause: 0.8 (Unknown)]

[Special Note: Applause can only be obtained in modern society; you'll need to figure it out yourself.]

This must have been praise received during a sword dance performance, right?
I remember there were at least a hundred people around the small square at the time, but the cheers were only 0.8. That's too little. No wonder they were unknown.

I wonder if there are any rewards for increasing the applause points. If there are, we could do a live stream later and have Granny Gongsun perform a sword dance while wearing a Taoist robe. This would increase the applause points and promote Hunyuan Palace at the same time, achieving the best of both worlds.

After finishing flipping through the black notebook, Zhou Yi was very tired, but his fighting spirit was exceptionally high.

The next step is to find a way to change ancient history, and when I have time, I will go down the mountain to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path, earning merit from various sources so that I can reach the required amount of one jin as soon as possible.

It would be great if I could exchange it for something like the Sword Control Technique, so I could fly directly to other places instead of taking the high-speed train.

After leaving the room, everything in the car had been unloaded. Aunt Gongsun, who was very clean, took her change of clothes and went to take a bath. Chen Tang was busy learning simplified Chinese characters.

Zhou Yi drove Wu Meiniang down the mountain, first filling up the van at a gas station, then driving to Sun Erfa's house to exchange it for his own motorcycle.

After spending most of the day running around the county and then looking at his black notebook, Zhou Yi was too exhausted to cook. He simply went to the braised meat shop and bought a bunch of braised dishes, and then bought five pounds of scallion pancakes from Uncle Wu's pancake stall. "Can you finish all these pancakes, Xiao Yi?"

Zhou Yi said with a smile:

"Today I'm going to perform a ritual at the lobster restaurant of Erfa's uncle and nephew. Several colleagues came to help, so I need to prepare more food so we don't run out."

Upon hearing this, Uncle Wu added a few more fried cakes to the bag.

On the way back, Wu Meiniang asked enviously:

"Master, why are the people in town so polite to you? Is it because you are a monk?"

“They watched me grow up and have long treated me like their own child. In addition, my grandfather has a good reputation in Yunwu Mountain for decades and has always helped the people in the town solve their problems, so we get along very well... But in some places it's not so good. There was a small temple in the neighboring county. The monks in the temple were rude and immoral. The local people couldn't stand it anymore and drove them away.”

Back on the mountain, Granny Gongsun finished her bath and was examining the building blocks she had bought that day.

Chen Tang put down his book as soon as he smelled the aroma of braised meat.
"Dinner's ready! I'm starving. I didn't get to eat my fill of crayfish at lunch. I should have ordered a few more bowls of noodles."

Wu Meiniang placed the packaged braised dishes on the table, put the flatbread in the basket, set out the bowls and chopsticks, and Zhou Yi made an egg drop soup. In less than five minutes, dinner was ready.

When Aunt Gongsun saw the fried cake, she picked it up, took a bite, and said with a delighted expression:

"It's so delicious! When I see His Majesty, I'll make sure he sends ten catties of fried cakes to the Hall of One Yuan every day as an offering... Daoist Master, would I dare to use your name to scam people out of food and drink?"

Zhou Yi took a bite of the scallion pancake and said:

"Eat whatever you want as long as you're not afraid of getting diabetes."

After saying that, he asked about the outcome of Chen Tang and Wu Meiniang's exchange of items from their respective worlds last time:
"Were there any unusual occurrences with the Xuan paper and scrolls over there?"

Chen Tang crunched on a piece of pig snout, saying as he ate:

“There was nothing unusual about it. It was brand new Xuan paper. Commander Gan held it and cried for a long time, saying that he had never seen such a convenient writing material before, and he planned to pass it down to his descendants as a treasure.”

Zhouyi: "..."

By the late Western Han Dynasty, the prototype of paper had begun to appear. As it developed with each generation, the value of Xuan paper gradually decreased, and it became increasingly devalued over time.

Wu Zetian said:
"Those bamboo slips haven't changed at all; they're exactly the same as when I left."

Eh?
So it turns out it was my fault... Zhou Yi originally thought that everything in the world had to go through the test of time, but he didn't expect that it was only when his own hand touched it that this change occurred.

It seems we can't just touch things carelessly anymore, lest we turn perfectly good items into cultural relics.

Chen Tang finished a large flatbread in a few bites and asked Zhou Yi:
"Sir, His Majesty will pass away in three years. At that time, Crown Prince Liu Ao will ascend the throne, and the Wang family will control the court. The Han Dynasty will be completely out of control. What should we do to save the dynasty from collapse?"

Even Zhou Yi didn't know how to answer this question.

According to his past thinking, it must be that kings and nobles are born with special privileges, and Chen Tang should be allowed to take the throne.

But seeing Wang Mang's infamy and the mixed reviews of Wu Zetian, I think it's better not to harm Tom Cruise... If he wants to be emperor, we should support him; if he doesn't have that ambition, we shouldn't blindly instigate or incite him.

Wu Zetian picked up the bowl, took a sip of the egg drop soup, and said to Chen Tang:

"Liu Ao is fifteen years old this year. If you can get close to him and guide him, there is a chance to change him. His problem lies with Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun. With a word from the Empress Dowager, ten members of her family can be ennobled and their entire families can rise to prominence. If we can restrain the Wang family and carry out top-down reforms, there is still a chance to turn the situation around."

Gongsun Da Niang asked:

"Rumor has it that Emperor Cheng has neglected state affairs for Zhao Feiyan. What should be done about this?"

Wu Meiniang glanced at Zhou Yi:
“Bring her here to serve the immortal master… Such a femme fatale would only bring disaster to the country if she stayed in the Han Dynasty. It would be better to keep her by the immortal master’s side.”

The Book of Changes: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
No, why are you so focused on luring beautiful women to Taoist temples?

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It's the last day of April, guys, please vote for me!
(End of this chapter)